Heat of the Moment
by mise the day
Summary: Despite how much she wished she could deny it, she'd never been a simple person. [AU. Crellie.]
1. Introduction

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Degrassi. Sigh, thanks for rubbing it in.

**Author's Note:** I probably spent too much time in Ellie's musings in the beginning, but I'm trying to get into her head. I probably didn't do too great of a job getting into her mindset, let me know if I should work on it more, considering the story's mostly going to be told in her thoughts.

She wasn't exactly sure how she'd ended up here.

She'd walked straight up to the front door and, deciding that it was a particularly bad idea, had turned on her heel and simply left. Now, she was spending all of her time pacing his driveway and she hated how terribly cliche all of this was.

Furthermore, she just wanted to figure out why she was _here._

Despite how much she wished she could deny it, she'd never been a simple person. There were times when she couldn't even figure herself out, and when she would have to retrace her steps to figure out how she'd ended up in a particular situation to try and work her way out, she realized the long maze that made up her thought process. Of course, she knew why she wasn't at home, but why her damned feet had guided her to this particular home, she wasn't sure and was giving herself a headache because she couldn't even figure it out. There was the obvious answer, but she would deny it because there had to be some kind of logic behind it.

And besides, he was one of her best friends. He knew more about her than really anyone else did, she could easily say that--just as he'd told her.

_"You've seen me down in the gutter. Lower than low. Lower than I want anyone else to see me. That's why you're my friend. My really good friend."_

Friends. They knew each other, inside and out, more than anyone else. He'd understand--yes, that all made sense. That was why she was here. They were close--best friends. And to her, the term 'best friend' actually did mean something, instead of that whiney gimmick that the popular girls would use as a substitute for "sidekick, friend that will tell me I look gorgeous even if I don't and will help me pick out an outfit for some stupid date."

There was Marco, and she could have gone to him. She'd begun to wonder if maybe Marco felt a bit betrayed due to her sudden closeness to Craig, but he'd gone to Africa, Ashley had gone to London, and Craig was... here. In group. Everywhere, basically. It wasn't possible for her to replace Marco, and she wasn't trying to, so he didn't need to worry.

_"You two have hand signals? We don't even have hand signals!"_

He'd meant it as a joke, no concerns, no problems. Marco was her safety wall, he had been since... forever. She really needed to stop this, she realized, snapping herself out of her thoughts. Dwelling too much upon the thought would drive her into flashbacks and thinking on her entire high school life. It was done, she was already here, she needed to get it over with.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Ellie walked up to the front door of the Jeremiah house, rapping her knuckles lightly against the door, hoping to God or whatever there was out there that Craig answered the door, instead of Joey or Angela or someone equally embarrassing. And for once, it seemed, her prayers--if you could really call it that--had actually been answered.

"El?" he questioned her with a slight yawn, and it was safe to assume he'd been sleeping. After all, he was obviously home with no plans and it was roughly two in the morning, so she understood if he was confused by her sudden appearance.

"Hey," she confirmed with a small smile, shifting from her heels to her toes consistently, uneasily.

"Do you.. uh.. wanna come in, or something?" he asked, stepping aside once she nodded. Entering the house and shutting the door behind her, she nodded absently and decided that if she was going to get this done, there was no point in beating around the bush.

"I was wondering if maybe I could... I could stay here. Just for a little while. I got into this huge fight with my mom and..." her voice trailed off and she looked down at the ground. He didn't need her to finish to catch what she meant and by the way she looked so broken, there wasn't any way he was going to say no. Not that he was really planning on turning her down, though.

"Yeah, sure. Don't worry about it," he consoled, beginning to lead her upstairs.

Maybe things wouldn't turn out so badly, she decided, stupid crush or not.


	2. Heaven

**Disclaimer:** D: Nope, don't own anything.

**Author's Note:** I figured I might as well update and stuff. If anyone's reading. Uh.. yeah, I'm still experimenting with my style, as you can probably tell, because right now I'm not really sure if I like it or not... hm. Anyway. Here it is.

She couldn't help but wonder why he was being so purely understanding about this entire situation. Didn't he find it strange that he was now going to have a girl in house? After all, he _was_ one of those guys that had the sex drive of about fifteen teenage males. Now that she thought about it, Ellie was probably giving him too much credit with that last thought. Still, she had vividly expressed that she had feelings for him not long ago, but she decided that she thought too much.

Of course, not until after she'd been _so lovingly_ swatted with a pillow.

"Hey!" she mock-whined, whacking him over the head with a flick of her wrist. Ellie had easily realized how compromising her current situation was: being in Craig's house at three in the morning, in his room, and lying with him on his bed. Not even sitting, lying, and she could feel his body heat and God, the butterflies in her stomach needed to stop. This entire emotional hurricane needed to stop.

"If you're going to show up at my house at two A.M. and ask to stay, you are not going to get away with ignoring me," he pouted, turning away from her with a huff. She half-wanted to squeal and pet him or something, but that would be so unlike her and she was Ellie and he was Craig and it just wouldn't work.

She sarcastically replied, "I'm sorry," patting him lightly on the head and giving him a goofy grin. "I was just so enthralled in this, um, movie we're watching," she joked, considering she didn't even have the slightest clue as to what the movie was. Obviously, it couldn't be that good if it was being aired in the middle of the night, as opposed to prime time television. She'd learned all of the details of air times, such as how it was more expensive to have a commercial around eight in the evening than three or four in the afternoon, during her internship with Caitlin Ryan.

"And now you have the nerve to lie to me?" he asked, eyes wide in mock hurt. She simply rolled her eyes -- classic Ellie move, she realized after she'd done it -- and stood up, only to cringe slightly and arch her back some. "Damn, you're really tense," he followed up, his voice taking on a more serious tone. "Lie down," he commanded. She gave him a look as though he were crazy (oh wait, he was,) but nevertheless, she followed suit.

She should've stopped where this was going as soon as he had told her to roll onto her back, but she trusted him. At least somewhat, anyway; there were certain aspects to his judgement that she didn't trust. And while her left brain screamed at her to tell him to stop once he'd told her to close her eyes, her right brain told her to relax and maybe, just maybe, part of her expected that this would be the moment she had been waiting for.

She felt him take two fingers and press them in against her back, traveling down her spine quickly and back up in some sort of massage form. She thought it was strange, but nevertheless, it felt nice. Relaxing. There were probably a million more adjectives that she could use to describe it, but she didn't want her mind to travel that far. Besides, now he was using both hands to rub deep circles into her tense muscles.

He stopped a short while after, only to have her sit up and blink a few times. She simply interjected, "Wow," and looked over to him. "I didn't--you give amazing massages," she regarded him in disbelief.

"I know," he stated bluntly, in that arrogant sort of way that Craig had a tendency to go about himself and she couldn't do much but laugh because she knew the broken little boy that truly made up Craig Manning.

"Thanks for being so modest," she replied, raising both eyebrows to him.

She thought it was funny, the way they just sort of melded together. Until last summer, Craig had been nothing more than Ashley's boyfriend, really. It wasn't until he joined her teen support group that they'd started hanging out, and even then, it was always with others. Marco, Jimmy, Alex, Ellie, and Craig were the usual crew, give or take a few, after the excommunication of Spinner. But now they were best friends, closer than should really be considered healthy. Especially for a girl and a guy. After all, whatever happened to "male and female best friends never work out?" Well, unless the male in question is gay. However, this was about Craig, not Marco.

Whoever made up that stupid saying turned out to be right, considering she now was the less-than-proud owner of an unrequited love. Crush. Whatever. And now that she'd accepted her feelings for what they were, being in this particular situation made her feel fluttery and girly and all the things she didn't exactly like.

"You said it, not me. Popcorn?" he offered abruptly, standing up and leaving the room before she even got the chance to answer. Men and their appetites.

Nevertheless, she thought that maybe this was crossing the boundary, staying in his house for however long she would be here. Until she was comfortable enough to go home, apparently, because she obviously couldn't stay here forever, no matter how much she wished against it. She found herself hating silence more and more, since every time it was quiet, even for a split second, her thought process would go on a rampage once more and her mind would remind her why this was such a bad idea.

Craig returned just as quickly as he'd left, filling the room with the sickening smell of butter and microwaved popcorn that Ellie detested yet loved at the same time, and laid back down in his original position on the side opposite of her on his bed. Setting the popcorn between the two then fully opening the top of the bag, he grabbed a handful and proceeded to attempt at tossing the kernels into his mouth. Ellie simply watched him with an amused smirk, one eyebrow raised.

"You suck at this, Manning," she berated, taking her own handful, tossing a single kernel into the air and catching it in her mouth, chewing as she absently flipped through the channels on the television that sat within a small entertainment center across the bed. He glared at her and lobbed his own few kernels upward and catching them in his mouth.

"Take that, Nash."

"Are you seriously trying to start a competition with me? Please, Craig, you are so out of your league."

"I think you're scared," he challenged her.

"Scared?" she asked before thwapping him over the head once more. "You're about as scary as a newborn puppy."

He returned the rap over her head and the process repeated itself several times until he reached over to tickle her ribs, which seemed to have been slowly becoming more and more routine for the two whenever they were left alone. She kicked her legs upward and laughed, biting down on her lip to keep from making too much noise; after all, she didn't want to wake Angie or Joey, and they had already been making a great deal of it. Popcorn was all over the bed by this point, and Craig didn't stop until he felt one poor yellow piece of popcorn crunch underneath one of his hands, making him realize the mess they'd both made.

"Now look what you did," she said and stuck her tongue out at him. He simply shrugged and began to eat, so she did as well, and soon enough there was no popcorn left except for the small amount of seeds in the bag.

The rest of the night was spent watching parts of strange movies that neither felt like watching to the end, and Ellie wasn't sure when they'd fallen asleep, but it was bound to happen. After all, it'd been late, and once they started laying back and simply watching movies, she should've realized there was a good chance that they'd fall asleep by mistake.

Ellie had woken up at around eight thirty to find herself spooned up against Craig, his arms wrapped around her waist and she noted how innocent he looked when he was sleeping. Who would have thought that the guy would be such a bastard when he was awake? Not that Craig was really all that bad, but she seemed to have grown accustomed to insulting him, usually only joking, though.

However, Craig was still asleep and she was still tired--she was sure that the time she'd fallen asleep was at the most four hours ago--thus she decided to go back to sleep. She didn't want to disturb the Jeremiahs.

At least, that was the reason she tried to convince herself was true, trying to stay away from the idea that she just liked being this close to him: his shallow breathing on her neck and his arms around her and quite frankly, she was sure this was how things were _supposed _to be. No olive-skinned, dark-haired grade-elevens that liked to flash cameras in sight. Yes, she particularly liked this image.

And that was how she drifted back off to sleep, only to be rudely awoken a second time by a shriek of disgust, followed by a "Craig, you bastard!" They'd both woken up this time, Craig looking confused for a second in that oblivious way he seemed to have about everything until he realized just what was going on. She didn't even check the clock this time, only looked at Craig's guilty facade and she couldn't help but feel sorry for him because it really was her fault, no matter how much she wanted the entire Craig and Manny episode to end.

He quickly pulled himself off of the bed and followed her down the stairs, and Ellie could hear that _girl_ talking too quickly and shouting all of her fury at him while Craig tried to reason with her. Stupid, she thought, glaring somewhat at the door. You can't reason with a girl like _that._

Ellie sighed, hauling herself off the bed, exiting Craig's room but stopping at the stairs. Maybe she should just let them work it out, considering Manny was so jealous all of the time and if she said anything, it might just make the situation worse. However, that little voice in the back of her head told her that it would be best if she at least tried to help, even if she didn't want to.

"Wait, Manny!" she called out reluctantly, heading down the stairs with swift movements.

She knew by the other girl's expression of disdain that this was _not_ going to be easy.

**Author's Note: **Blah, this was basically just the bullshit that I needed to tie into the next chapter... uh. It's mostly just rambling that isn't really needed... yeah. I ramble. A lot. Too much, actually. I write short chapters, too. I noticed that. I tried to make this one a little longer and… I think it just kind of came out bad.


End file.
